By Rob Soucy
In the aftermath of his victory over Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Floyd “Money” Mayweather has left some believing that he is not the same fighter that he was in 2013 when he easily beat Robert Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Fans and media alike are speaking the same way they did after Mayweather’s hard fought decision win over Miguel Cotto in May of 2012.
After having a chance to watch the fight a couple more times, I feel very confident about my initial thoughts post fight at the MGM. Marcos Maidana was competitive enough against Floyd Mayweather for some to feel that he won the fight. However, I saw Floyd as the clear-cut winner despite all of the Argentinean’s dirty tactics.
Don’t get me wrong, Maidana performed well and did win some rounds with his aggressive, mauling style. Remember though, there are three main criteria for judging a fight, clean punching, effective aggression, and ring generalship. “El Chino” had his best round in the first stanza as he was able to land cleanly and even wobbled Floyd momentarily with a chopping right hand. However, for most of the fight he was not able to hit Mayweather flush.
Maidana’s effective aggression was only evident in a few rounds as most of his wild shots were missing the target. He did, however, land fairly clean to Mayweather’s ribcage on and off throughout the fight. Mayweather, on the other hand, displayed ring generalship and was the much cleaner puncher all night.
In my mind, ring generalship consists of many things during a fight like cleverness, controlling pace, conserving energy, remaining calm and composed under pressure, being effective and economical with punches, displaying good footwork, being patient, mixing up the offensive attack, and displaying good defensive skills. Maidana showed very little if any ring generalship and used a very one-dimensional attack. Mayweather’s ring generalship and much cleaner punching were on display in all but a couple of rounds.
There were rounds that Maidana controlled by not only keeping Mayweather on the ropes but landing punches as well. I think Maidana won the 1st and 5th rounds convincingly while Mayweather dominated the 7th and 9th. Scoring every other round is what separates the knowledgeable and not so well informed boxing fan.
Although the remaining eight rounds were competitive, it was fairly easy to see that Floyd Mayweather was winning the fight by landing the cleaner shots and with his ring generalship.
On the other hand, Marcos Maidana was as dirty as I have ever seen a fighter be without getting deducted points. He hit Mayweather in the back of the head, butted him, attempted to make contact with his knee, tackled Floyd and hit him while he was on the canvass, and last but not least he bit Mayweather’s hand.
At the post fight press conference, Mayweather made it known that he chose to fight the way that he did because he wanted to give the fans what they came to see. His comments were similar to those that he made after the Cotto fight when some in the media questioned whether Floyd had “lost his legs.” Mayweather then went on to box circles around Guerrero and Alvarez putting an end to that notion.
Floyd also stated that if he gives Maidana a rematch it would be a boring fight in which he would win easily on the outside. Apparently those who suggest that Floyd is ready to be beaten forget what he said going into the fight. Mayweather made it known that there was no game plan and that he was going to fight Maidana. Mayweather, chose not to box and use his legs just as he did against Cotto. However, Maidana deserves credit for keeping Mayweather’s back to the ropes more than Floyd would have liked.
All things considered, Maidana did about as well as he could and a rematch would look a lot different. First of all, I believe referee Tony Weeks had a bad night and Mayweather would certainly lobby for Kenny Bayless to get the assignment in September. Bayless would certainly limit Maidana’s rough housing and dirty tactics while also limiting his effectiveness.
Speaking of September, unfortunately there aren’t many viable options for Floyd. A Maidana rematch is probably the most attractive to Showtime and probably Floyd as well. When it comes to the sport of boxing, most of the mainstream media are uneducated. The buzz amongst it is that this fight could have gone either way and that Maidana poses a serious threat in a rematch. While boxing insiders know that Maidana’s only real shot is to clip Floyd with a big shot and knock him out.
The pay-per-view numbers have not been officially announced as of yet but there are rumblings that the event did between 800k-900k buys. I think a rematch would probably do 1.2 million buys, which is what Showtime and Mayweather need at this point.
If Danny Garcia decides that he wants to move up to welterweight and fight Floyd he has an outside chance of getting the opportunity. For religious reasons, Amir Khan is not an option for September and Floyd almost certainly will not fight later in the fall to accommodate him.
I think it will be Mayweather-Maidana unless Miguel Cotto can upset Sergio Martinez for the lineal middleweight world championship. If that happens, I think Floyd would want a rematch with Cotto and a shot at the middleweight championship, probably in November.
